Thriving Churches Blog

Resources for Thriving Churches & Leadership

thrivingchurches — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 05:47:16 +0000

Thriving Churches is all about helping you and your ministry to thrive. We have a passion to help churches and leaders thrive in the areas of outreach, spiritual growth, and developing leaders. I just checked out one page of our resource list and here is what I found (these are all from the last page of the resource listing if you want to check it out:

* How to Cast Vision

* Basic Bible Doctrine MP3 teaching files

* Establishing Your Family Foundation MP3 teaching files

* Questions for your primary ministry environments

Check out Thriving Church Resources Here!

Sticky Teams Leadership Learnings from TCI Friend Larry Osborne

thrivingchurches — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:22:48 +0000

Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church , gave a great presentation today at the “Sticky Teams Conference”. Here are some shorthand notes on leadership lessons Larry has learned (his version of the “dumb tax” he’s already paid that we can all learn from):

1) Winning Teams guard the gate. Losing teams let anyone in. Who are you allowing into leadership roles? Are you compromising on character, people skills, or allowing contentious people in the wrong seats on the bus?

2) Winning teams make unity a priority. Losing teams treat it as an afterthought. (Full disclosure here: I’m a total fan of Larry’s book, The Unity Factor, and have recommended it for years to churches I’ve worked with and spoken to). Friends disagree, acquaintances argue.

3) Winning Teams focus on their mission. Losing teams focus on their successes. We move the bullseye (mission drift) when we are not rightly focused

4) Winning teams focus on empowerment. Losing teams focus on excellence and tenure. Excellence is a strategy to reach the dechurched…not the end itself. Warning signs here: are we giving new folks a chance, do we have an entitlement mentality for long term staff, and are we allowing eagles to soar or are we caging them?

5) Winning teams adapt for the future. Losing teams long for the past. I Corinthians 9:19-23, 24ff. Adaption is not compromise as long as the message is not changed. New wine requires new wineskins.

GREAT day at the Sticky Teams conference. Glad these folks are TCI friends!

Thrive North Dakota Highlights!

thrivingchurches — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 19:49:49 +0000

Thrive North Dakota has been completed…and what an awesome ride it was! I know we will be posting photos and maybe some videos at the TCI site (www.thrivingchurches.com), but I wanted to give you some first hand stats and descriptions.

First…the basic demographics:

* Over 400 in attendance representing over 27 churches.

* Paul Knight and the people of Hope Church (hopegf.org) were AH-MAZING! Great hospitality, great hearts, great people, great passion for the community

* Response from people was great and we had media coverage in the news media for both Friday and Saturday and a FRONT PAGE article in the Grand Forks Herald See article here: Thrive North Dakota Article

* The Thrive team (part of our TCI team HQ’d at Bayside Church) did a great job preparing for the event and they served well. Since Bayside is our first “Hub Church” we are using them to model what we hope our other Hub Churches will do. Hope Church did a great job as a Hub Church in hosting this conference.

* We had over 30 workshops and our initial feedback was fanatastic; virtually all the workshops were hosted by local presenters.

Stay tuned…more to come. We should have photos, videos, and possibly DVD/audio files of sessions available in short order.

Bonus #1: I’m attaching the PowerPoint for what I presented on Saturday morning in the general session.

JOHNJMESSAGE -THRIVEND

More Teaching Resources…Go Deeper!

thrivingchurches — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:43:44 +0000

Here as a next step in the series of Teaching Resources we are making available on the TCI site, are several teaching series I did that will help your church family to Thrive in Spiritual Growth….one way I often stated our vision was that God wanted us to reach more and grow deeper for His glory…remember…i am not a manuscript speaker, but you’ll get the basic outlines here:

Complete Series on First John A Biblical Study on First John that will help enrich and encourage your people

Changing Your Life

Want to change for good and for God’s glory? This series will equip you to change..

Be Complete in Christ! This is my rendition of Saddleback’s CR series…customized for our people and context

Living Like Jesus Did This series was a powerful look at what LLJD would like like instead of the question WWJD?

The Holy Spirit

Clear Biblical teaching about the person, work, and present ministry of the Holy Spirit

Handles from Heroes

I love Biblical character studies…here are some of my favorites

Suffering Where is God when it hurts? This series answers that question and others about suffering

Series 7-Positive Impressions

Ever feel like you are swimming upstream in a downstream world? Romans 7 & 8 passages are explained and applied in this powerful teaching series

More Teaching Resources

thrivingchurches — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 04:05:23 +0000

With the caveat that you know I’m not a manuscript speaker, the teaching resources below should give you great help in developing teachings for your Thriving Church in key areas. TCI is all about helping you and your church to thrive! Each of these series were taught in a local church where God used the series to equip and encourage the local body. The two teachings entited “Series 7 and Series 9″ are both from the book of Romans

The Trap of Offense

Defeating The Giants in Your Life

All In Series

Defy Gravity Red Letter Living

Series 7-Positive Impressions

Series 9-Transformers

The Power of Faith 053109

More Teaching Resources: Biblical Teaching on Hot Topics

thrivingchurches — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:18:00 +0000

At Thriving Churches International (TCI), we want to equip you and your church to thrive!

During the past 12 years, I was able to teach a number of series on “hot topics” that God used to stir up our people to think and act more Biblically about tough issues of our day. I share these teachings here for your use; remember that I am not a manuscript speaker so these are like extended outlines for your study and preparation. Enjoy!

Biblical Truth in a Relative World This series will help you address the topic of relativism in our world today

Why Should I Believe That-Faith and Doubt I argue here that God is big enough for your doubts; your doubts don’t nullify your faith!

What Should a Christian in America Can Christianity and patriotism go together?

Honoring Our Heritage Another patriotic teaching with a challenge

Just War and Why Arabs & Jews Can’t Just Get Along Very hot topic on current issues; taught in the post 9/11 world

Managing Your Life During a Crisis How can I possibly have peace in the middle of the storm?

The Holy Spirit This series helped our church connect with the 3rd member of the Trinity

Divorce Some great resources here to teach on this pain filled subject and do so with grace and truth

Suffering How is it possible that a loving God would allow me or others to suffer?

I trust that each of these teachings will equip you and your church to thrive!

Teaching Resources on Money–Get it Here!

thrivingchurches — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:57:55 +0000

Most pastors hate to talk about money. It is, after all, one of the reason that some people say they don’t want to go to church. I’m different. I love talking about anything that Jesus focused on; and money was certainly high on Jesus’ list…NOT because God needs our money, but because God desires our heart and the love of money is the root of all evil.

So…here are a few of my favorite teachings I’ve done on money and personal finances…same disclosure: I’m not a manuscript speaker so these teaching resources are yours to develop and make personal for your thriving church:

Financial Peace-Its not what you think

Whos Dime is it Anyway

Managing the Money Monster

Teaching Resources

thrivingchurches — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 06:21:45 +0000

Here are a number of additional teaching resources. I’m trying to share things here that I think will benefit your ministry as you lead thriving churches. Each one of these teachings are favorite series that I taught in the first 3 years of the life of the church we planted in Northern Nevada (now LifePoint Church) . I think God can use them for His glory in your setting. I am not a manuscript speaker, so you’ll get the primary benefit of a working outline but that should be enough to help you grow from there…

Winning Big-First series at CVC This was the first teaching series we did; it launched the church

ChristianLivingfrom9to5 This series will help marketplace ministry come alive

Managing the Money Monster This is a midweek series I did on managing personal finances

Changing Your Life This series is all about how God can bring change into your life

Hearing God: The number one question followers of Christ want to know: How do I know if God is speaking to me?

Christianity and Culture: How am I supposed to interact with the world?

Honoring Our Heritage: Solid teaching on our background as Americans

Seasons of Faith: Does it always look and feel the same or does spiritual growth have seasons?

Some favorite teachings–Christmas messages!

thrivingchurches — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:55:39 +0000

Christmas in September? Am I crazy? Maybe. But, I know that I always liked to have the basic template for our Christmas teachings and ministries in my head and heart in September…plus, I like Christmas music! So…in that spirit…I wanted to share several of my favorite Christmas teachings of the last several years. I am not a manuscript speaker, so these are not “verbatim”; but you’ll get the basic outline and framework of the key teaching points.
Use at will…and enjoy!

Experience Christmas

Imagine Christmas

Follow the Star

Christmas 2000-When God Shows Up

Gifts for Everyone at Christmas

Christmas Chronicles

Finding Peace in Christmas

Meet Me at the Mountain-Part 4

thrivingchurches — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:33:57 +0000

More on things I “heard” on the Mountain with James & Betty Robison:

-Pay the price or forfeit the future. Live Your Life for Kingdom Purpose. (My life mission: I want to invest my life in Kingdom Impact people and organizations to leverage my life for the glory of God).

-Why don’t we champion the faith? Are will willing to lay it down for freedom for others?

-Everything that is in His heart is not your part. What is your part? We all need to know our part and help other people do their part (TOTALLY resonated here; my book “Finding Your Place in God’s Plan” came out of this passion).

-Everyone needs a shoulder to lean on; encourage your people to be a shoulder to lean on. (How is this happening in your thriving church?)

-If people want their prayers answered, then seek to be an answer to someone’s prayer. If you want your dreams fulfilled, then lose your dreams in Him. What is on His heart?

-All pressure, pain, problems in life have either come through the hand of God or through His fingers. Why? Form Christlikeness in us. (If we really believed this, how would it change the way we respond to trouble in our lives?)

-We need to grow crops where we are planted!

-We need to release and challenge teenagers to their divine appointments! What are our churches calling people to? Stop feeding people pablum! Get into God’s heart and gameplan for today! (Note…how do I respond to this as a leader of leaders?. How do you react to this as a Christ follower?)